Can I create a copy of Jira Software Cloud instance for testing?

[Sharon Connell]

I currently have two test projects within our production instance for testing. It would be better if I could create a test instance with our current configurations for testing. Is this possible for cloud-based products?

[Sharon Connell]

I have been attempting to import the backup and have been getting the following error. I assumed as I was exporting from one cloud instance into another, there would be no configuration needed. Any help appreciated. I have attempted with and without attachments and avatars.

Import error
There was an error importing file jira_export_20170428_105656.zip: "There was an error parsing the entities.xml file: An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0x10) was found in the value of attribute "body" and element is "Action".". Please try again or choose a different file.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The best you can do is take a backup of the existing Cloud system, buy a new one (the $10 pm will usually be enough for most testing) and import your data into the new one.

[Sharon Connell]

Thanks for the prompt answer, Nic. I suspected this would be the approach, but wanted to see if I had overlooked anything.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Your instincts and search abilities are spot-on, you have not overlooked anything as a tester or admin.

As a developer, the SDK does let you fire up something resembling a test Cloud system, but it is purely for testing Connect add-ons and really has nothing to do with checking configurations for Cloud.

[Yuki Reid]

Note, if you have more than 10 users in your "prod" cloud instance, then you need to edit the entities.xml file from your backup jira-export.zip file and inactivate most of your users.  If you do not inactivate, the restore to your test instance will fail.  

Here's an example of how to edit the entities.xml from Atlassian support:

<User id="10001" directoryId="1" userName="sysadmin" lowerUserName="sysadmin" active="1" createdDate="2017-07-28 20:03:18.206" updatedDate="2017-07-28 20:03:18.206" firstName="System" lowerFirstName="system" lastName="Administrator" lowerLastName="administrator" displayName="System Administrator" lowerDisplayName="system administrator" emailAddress="sysadmin@localhost.localdomain" lowerEmailAddress="sysadmin@localhost.localdomain" credential="{PKCS5S2}R+BJAdk3nuzFdPM7xgH9f6dp1SvPCTa57Z4LZvMj4kKcpcBvOBoBsW5rMs/xoydN"/>

Note the active parameter is set to 1, so this user is active. The user would be inactive if the value was set to 0.
One workaround you can apply, is to use a text editor and run a find and replace in the entities file to find this entry active="1" createdDate=" and replace by active="0" createdDate=" - That would set all users in the file as inactive, so you wouldn't find any problems related to license seats. Once the import is finished you'll be able to access the user management and reactivate the users you need, up to 10 on each application.

Once you are done with editing, just re-zip the files and try the import process again.

[Alexandr Karlin]

Hi guys, do you know whether the workflows, issue types and other configurations will be backed up and transferred to new instance as well during Jira Cloud instance copying?